Pride Fails -- July 3, 2009

16 But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord—valiant men. 18 And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the Lord God.” 19 Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous; so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. …
2 Chronicles 26:16-21

It is sad when the blessing of the Lord becomes a point of pride to our destruction instead of a place of gratitude to our benefit. Uzziah had it made. He was the king at sixteen and he was good at it. He did right before the Lord by listening to Zechariah the prophet and other godly counselors. He followed in his father’s way but went deeper and got stronger. He was well organized, had good technology; his agricultural projects worked well, and he was a good warrior using his organized tech to press against the enemy. Finally he became famous because “he was marvelously helped”. (2 Chronicles 26:15) Then he fell into the same sin King Saul did by trying to participate in duties only allowed by the priests.

His pride took him to a place he could not go. It enraged him when the priest withstood him. This rage caused him to continue in his sin holding the censor until leprosy broke out on his head. Then He hurried out when it was too late. He thought he was famous because of his skills. He quit acknowledging that his help was from the Lord. It was this false perception of his situation that brought him down. Because of his insistent sin he was an isolated leper even though he remained king in name. We can learn a lot from our friend Uzziah.

We can reject any sense of pride since we know that even our very lives are dependent upon the Lord. (Proverbs 29:23) We can learn to be angry and still not sin. (Ephesians 4:26) We can learn not to let our sin cause us to linger until it brings us to punishment. (Proverbs 29:1) Lord let our hearts remain gratefully humble; keep us close to you and do not let us get away from you with distorted thoughts that we have anything that is not a gift from you. Keep our hearts soft before you so that your blessing may continue in our lives to your glory. Amen.

Pastor Jason